Shoe-finishing machine



March 15, 1938. a H. B. GREENOUGH 2,110,933

SHOE FINISHING MACHINE Filed Dec. 22, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 1938. H. B. GREENOUGH ,1 3

I SHOE FINISHING MACHINE Filed Dec. 22 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Q. Li;

Patented Mar. 15, 1938 UNITED STATES 2 ,iit,933

PATENT OFFWE SHOE-FINISHING MACHINE Application December 22, 1936, Serial No. 117,163

9 Claims.

This invention relates to finishing machines and is illustrated herein as embodied in a machine adapted for finishing the heels of shoes.

The finishing of shoe heels by the use of the usual type of finishing machine requires an operator to present the work successively to a number of different finishing tools arranged at spaced points along a rotating shaft. The losses of time and energy of the operator occasioned by thus moving the work from place to place are ma-- terial and are factors which it is an object of the present invention to avoid. I

To this end, the presentation of the work to the" finishing tools of the illustrated machine is effected at one operating point past which the tools are moved in succession as a result of being mounted, in accordance with an important feature of the invention, on a constantly moving carrier or turret, the spacing of the tools on the turret being determined with reference to the different amounts of time required to carry out the various operations so that there is substantially no lost time between the completion of one opera tion and the arrival at the operating point of the succeeding finishing tool.

As herein illustrated, the finishing tools have a uniform orbital movement with respect to a tool for applying finishing medium to the work, the applying tool being located conveniently with re spect to the operating point of the finishing tools whereby a minimum of movement of the operator is required in presenting work to the finishing tools after the work has received an application of finishing mediumv These and other features of the invention. will be apparent from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawlugs and will be pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of an illustrative machine embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation illustrating the finishing tools and the turret upon which they are mounted as viewed from the left-hand side of the machine shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an elevation as viewed from the righthand side of the machine shownin Fig. 1.

Although the present invention may have application in a machine adapted for performing any finishing operation on a shoe, it is disclosed herein with reference to the finishing of heels of shoes. In the finishing of a shoe heel by the use of the illustrated machine the heel, which will have been prepared for the finishing operation as I by scouring and buifing, will first be presented to (Cl. 12--i) a rotating tool it) which applies a finishing medium, such as wax with or without ink, to the heel. The tool If! is of the type disclosed in Letters Patent of the United States No. 616,432, granted December 20, i898, upon the application 5 of Z. Beaudry, and is fi'Xed on the left-hand end of the shaft i2 (Fig. 1) which is supported adjacent to the tool by an arm M, the latter being fixed to a bracket l6 which is fastened to the machine column iii. The shaft I2 is also ro- 10 tatably mounted at its right-hand end in a hearing member 2E1 fixed to the top of the column It. The shaft 12 is driven by a belt 22 which runs over a pulley 24 fixed to the shaft l2, the belt being driven from any suitable source of power, v15 as an electric motor 26.

The finishing medium is supplied to the tool it by a disk 28 rotatably mounted in a medium holder 30, the construction and mounting of which is the same as that of the machine illus- 20 trated in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,636,333, granted July 19, 1927, upon the applica; tion of J. F. Standish. As will be fully understood from the above-mentioned Standish patent, ad,- justment of the disk 28 transversely of the axis 25 of the tool It is effected by turning a crank 32 which operates a slide 34 on which the holder 39 is mounted. The slide 34 is mounted in a dovetail slideway formed in a block 35 which may be clamped to the upper end of the bracket iii in 30 any desired position of adjustment axially of the shaft 52 by means of bolts 33 which pass through elongated slots E6 in the bracket 55. The disk 28 may be driven from the shaft M by any suitable means, such as beveled gear connections, as 35 illustrated in the Standish patent, or by means of a belt 42,'as in the present machine, which runs over a pulley "i4 fixed to the shaft l2 and a pulley 58 associated with the disk 28.

The shoe heel, having had wax applied thereto 40 by the tool it, is next moved to an operating point in front of the machine to which finishing tools comprising a padding wheel 38, a rand burnishing and beading wheel 50 and two rotary brushes 52, 5a are brought in succession as a result of their 45 being bodily rotated, as will be described later, in an orbital movement with respect to the tool it and shaft I2. Each of the above-mentioned finishing tools is journaled in a head 56 and each head is adjustably' fixed in a turret comprising 50 a disk 58 having a tubular hub 68 journaled in the bearing member 26 and adapted to receive the shaft M. A guard member EiZ'surrounds the heads 56 and has a series of elongated slots 64 adapted to receive screws 66 threaded into the 5 heads 56. Alined radially with respect to the slots 54 are other slots 68 formed in the disk 58 and adapted to receive clamp bolts 10 for securing the heads 55 to the disk 58. The disk 58 is rotated at a relatively slow uniform velocity, so that the operator has enough time to present the work to the tools, by a gear train comprising a worm gear 12 fixed to the hub 65, the gear being driven by a worm 74 carried by a shaft 15 journaled in an extension of the bearing member 28 and having mounted on its end remote from the worm 74 a worm gear 18. The gear "I8 is driven by another worm 86 mounted on a shaft 82 journaled in the bearing member 20 and carrying a pulley 84 at its outermost end in the plane of the pulley 24 to facilitate its being driven by the belt 22. Thus, when the motor 26 is operated, the wax-applying tool shaft l2 will be rotated and the finishing tools 48, 55, 52, and 54 will be bodily rotated with respect to the tool iii at such a speed that each tool will remain in the vicinity of the operating point above referred to long enough to enable an operator to finish that operation for which each operating tool is intended to be used.

The angular spacing between the finishing tool heads 55, as illustrated herein, is irregular and is to be determined with reference to the different amounts of time required for each finishing operation, this angular adjustment of the finishing tools with respect to each other being permitted by the slots 64 and 68 which allow the heads 55 to be adjustably clamped in the turret in any desired relation to each other. t will be noted with reference to Fig. 2 that the greatest spacing between the tool heads 56 exists between that carrying the brush 54, which is the last finishing tool to be brought to the operating point during one cycle of the operation of the machine, and the padding tool 48 which is the first tool to which work is presented after it has received an application of wax from the applying tool Hi. This wide spacing of the padding wheel 48 and the brush 54 gives time for the operator not only to place a finished shoe aside but also to pick up one to be operated upon and to apply wax to the latter as the padding tool 48, owing to the movement of the turret, is moved to the operating point. It will be understood that the angular spacing between the finishing tools 48, 50, 52, and 54 may be adjusted at the will of the operator to suit the requirements of various types of work so that there will be substantially no loss of time between the different finishing operations. The finishing tools 48, 55, 52, and 54 are also rotated about their own axes by connections comprising belts 85 which are driven by pulleys 88 which are fixed to the shaft 12 between the arm l4 and the disk 58.

Although the operation of the illustrated machine will be clearly understood from the foregoing description, it will now be summarized. The holder 39 having been adjusted to bring the wax-applying disk 28 into the desired relation to theapplying tool H1 and the motor 26 having been started, the operator presents the heel of a shoe to be finished to the applying tool it which applies and distributes the finishing medium or wax evenly over the peripheral surface of the heel. Owing to the proximity of the applying tool iii to the operating point at which the work is presented to the finishing tools 48, 55, 52, and 54, the operator is able merely by swinging his body and without moving his feet to move the shoe from the applying tool id to the finishing tools. After having had finishing medium or wax applied thereto, the shoe heel will be finished by being operated upon successively by the padding wheel 48, the rand burnishing and beading tool 55 and the brushes 52 and 54. Owing to the above-described slot arrangement by "which the heads 56 may be angularly adjusted relatively to each other in the turret, the spacing between the finishing tools may be readily controlled with reference to the time required for each particular finishing operation so that there will be substantially no lost time between successive finishing operations as explained above. It will thus be apparent that a minimum of effort is required of the operator in presenting the work to the applying and finishing tools and that by properly relating the speed of rotation of the turret and the spacing of the finishing tools an eilicient speed in carrying out the various finishing operations is encouraged.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a shoe finishing machine, a rotating finishing medium applying tool, and a plurality of finishing tools mounted for movement bodily in a path surrounding the axis of said applying tool at a constant velocity past an operating point at which a shoe is presented to said tools in succession, said finishing tools being irregularly spaced so as to permit th operator to interchange a l finished shoe for one to be operated upon and apply medium thereto during the period when the last finishing tool leaves and the first tool reaches the said operating point.

2. In a shoe finishing machine, a plurality of finishing heads each comprising a tool, a carrier for said heads, means for moving said carrier continuously whereby said tools are successively moved through an operating position at which a shoe is presented to said tools, said heads being mounted for adjustment on said carrier in the direction of itsmovement thereby to permit spacing said heads relatively to each other in accordance with the time required for each finishing operation.

3. In a shoe finishing machine, a plurality of finishing heads comprising tools adapted to be used in succession in finishing a shoe, a carrier on which said heads are mounted for adjustment relatively to each other, and means for moving said carrier at a uniform velocity whereby said heads are successively moved through an operating position at which a shoe is presented to said tools, the space between that head used to complete the finishing of one shoe and that used to begin the finishing of the succeeding shoe being greater than the space between successive heads used in finishing the same shoe thereby to compensate for the time required in substituting for a finished shoe one to be operated upon.

4. In a shoe-finishing machine, a tool for applying finishing medium to a shoe, a turret carrying a plurality of rotating tools to which a 7 shoe having had medium applied thereto is pre sented, and means for continuously rotating said turret whereby said rotating tools are bodily rotated with respect to said applying tool, the last and first tools on said turret to which the shoe is presented being spaced from each other at a greater distance than that between other successive tools thereby to permit the interchange ci a finished shoe for one to be operated upon and the application of medium to the latter by the use of said applying tool.

5. In a shoe-finishing machine, a tool for applying finishing medium to a shoe, and a plurality of finishing tools adapted for use in sucsession to finish a shoe to which finishing medium has been applied by said applying tool, said finishing tools being mounted to have an orbital movement about said applying tool.

6. In a shoe-finishing machine, a plurality of shoe-finishing tools adapted to be used in succession, a turret on which said tools are rotatably mounted, and means for rotating said turret at a constant angular velocity, the angular space between that tool used to complete the finishing of one shoe and that used to begin the finishing of the succeeding shoe being substantially greater than the angular spacing between successive tools used in finishing the same shoe.

'7. In a finishing machine, a plurality of finishing heads comprising tools adapted to be used in succession in finishing a shoe, a continuously rotating turret on which said heads are angularly spaced at different distances in accordance with the time required for the respective finishing operations, and a finishing-medium-applying tool mounted to rotate about the axis of said turret.

8. In a finishing machine, a rotatable shaft, a tool on said shaft for applying finishing medium to a shoe, a plurality of finishing tools, a turret carrying said finishing tools and mounted to rotate about the axis of said shaft, means for rotating said turret and shaft, and connections operated by said shaft for rotating said finishing tools.

9. In a finishing machine, a tool for applying finishing medium to a shoe, a shaft on which said tool is mounted, a turret comprising a sleeve in which said shaft is rotatably supported, a plurality of finishing tools mounted on said turret for angular adjustment about the axis of said turret, means for rotating said turret and shaft, and connections between said shaft and said finishing tools for rotating the latter.

HENRY B. GREENOUGH. 

